Reported Missing
by cato893
Summary: "Don't be bemused, just the news. I'm Nadja Chamack. Parisians have been worried as 2 students of College Francoise Dupont high school have been missing for nearly a week. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Marinette Dupain-Cheng or Adrien Agreste, please call the number on your screen. Meanwhile, Hawkmoth continues to ravage the city with more akumas than ever before.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, there. This is my first time ever writing/posting fanfiction, so if I've screwed up horribly, you know why. All rights to the creators of this beautiful show.**

Chapter 1 - Lila's POV

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news. I'm Nadja Chamack, and today police officers had to break up a fight at College Francoise Dupont, after some students got into an argument about the recently declared missing students."

Portraits of Marinette and Adrien appeared on the screen of Lila's tablet, with their respective names below.

"For those who don't know, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste both went missing the night before last, seemingly vanishing out of thin air. Marinette was last seen at her friend Alya Cesaire's house, where the two girls were working on homework. A little past 18h00, Marinette left to go home, but never made it. She was noticed as missing two and a half hours later, when Mrs. Cheng called the Cesaire household to see if her daughter was still there.

"Adrien Agreste returned home from school earlier that same afternoon and was dismissed to his room to practice his piano. Both his bodyguard and his father's assistant reported nothing unusual in the teen supermodel's behavior. They heard piano music coming from his room all afternoon. It was roughly the same time Marinette disappeared when the assistant, a woman named Nathalie Sancouer, came to tell the boy his dinner was ready. She found an alarming sight: the music was coming from a recording on his phone, a single window was hanging open, and Adrien was nowhere to be found. The checked the house's security tapes to find out where he'd gone, only to find them missing.

"Ever since, the communities around College Francoise Dupont high school, and the people of Paris in general, have been in a riot. Two high-profile students, from the same class and happened to be friends, disappearing without a trace? From one of the most reputable public schools in Paris?

"This exclusive footage shows the emotional tensions between Marinette and Adrien's classmates. This morning, Officer Roger Raincomprix and two of his deputies arrived to question the students about their missing peers."

Oh, yes. Lila remembered this morning quite well. While she hadn't been particularly worried, the same could not be said for the rest of her classmates. What happened, or what could be happening to Marinette and Adrien was alarming. It made them all deeply uncomfortable, and scared.

Rose and Juleka had been caught several times in the past two days crying and clinging to each other. Mylene had grown shy and timid, like a mouse, and she stuck close to Ivan. Nathaniel had been twitchy and distracted; constantly dropping his pencil, or being called out by Ms. Bustier for not paying attention. Kim and Max were constantly wearing worried frowns.

Alya and Nino were openly train wrecks, not even making an effort to hide their bloodshot eyes. Lila found herself constantly drawn to them, offering up sympathy for them and expressing worries about Marinette and Adrien.

"I know you and Marinette didn't exactly get along, so it's nice to hear how concerned you are for her." Alya said yesterday at lunch. Meanwhile Nino winced at her choice of verbs. Didn't.

The only loose points were when Alix and Kim started to roast each other, though everyone knew it was just to break the tension. Their hearts weren't really in it.

Even Chloe was terrified, though she tried her best to hide it.

Which was how situations like the one this morning came into existence.

The footage on the news broadcast showed the class, right after the police had finished taking each student out of class one by one for questioning. It was taken by Alya, who'd been recording Officer Raincomprix speaking a few minutes earlier.

"Psh, I don't get what everyone's so worked up about. Dupain-Cheng probably just fell down a hole somewhere, and Adrikins is probably just playing hooky," said Chloe. "There's not really anything to worry about." Of course, nobody believed her.

"Not really anything to worry about?" This came from Nino, who'd been on the verge of a breakdown all morning. "They've been missing for a day and a half, no one knows where they are, and you think there's nothing to worry about?!" His hands clenched the desk in barely controlled anger, and he was shaking. Could anyone really blame him? His best bro was missing, along with classmate and friend Marinette, who he'd known for years. "They could be injured, kidnapped, or dead. Who knows, maybe Hawk Moth has them!" He narrowed his sickly eyes at Chloe.

She winced at his tone, but didn't back down. Instead, she huffed, "Watch and see, it'll be nothing. You're all being ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous?" Nino squeaked, jumping out of his seat and grabbing Chloe by the collar of her shirt. "How can you say that?!"

"Woah dude, get off of her. Chloe was just trying to calm everyone down." Kim shoved Nino off of her, but the DJ wasn't having it.

He pushed back at Kim, while shouting to Chloe: "How can you say that about them?! It's Marinette and Adrien! MARINETTE AND ADRIEN!"

Kim punched Nino in the ribs, and then the two were down on the floor in a heap. From behind the camera, Alya shouted, "Hey! DON'T HURT NINO!" Alix and Ivan got up from their desks, as if to join in, but neither made it that far.

"ENOUGH!" Officer Raincomprix heaved the two boys up off the floor, roughly shoving them away from each other. "I get it. These are stressful times right now. I'll say it like it is. Two of your classmates are gone, and we have no idea if they've run away, if they were kidnapped, or if they're dead or alive. But starting fights isn't going to help get them back. Honestly, would you want Marinette and Adrien to see you like this-young lady, put that phone down!" The last part was directed to Alya, and the recording stopped abruptly.

Lila shut off her tablet when the clip finished playing. If she was being honest, she didn't know how to feel. She was mostly just confused. While she didn't really care what happened to Dupain-Cheng, she hoped Adrien was okay. It would be a real shame if the two had run away together or something. Adrien was way too fine to be wasting his life with bratty little Marinette.

Maybe Marinette had kidnapped him. She didn't strike Lila as maliciously evil, but she certainly could be the obsessive type. It seemed extreme that she would kidnap him but certainly not out of the realm of possibility. And if Lila was right, hmm…. This gave her an idea.

She grabbed her tablet and looked up interviews from Marinette and Adrien's families. The case of the missing Parisian supermodel and his quirky school friend had blown up on social media for the past two days, and every news station in Paris had tried to get a scoop of the juicy mystery.

What Lila found most interesting was how their parents had reacted to the situation. Marinette's were clearly devastated and terrified. They had the same vibe of loving and good as Marinette, the vibe Lila absolutely hated. Why couldn't she just be loved like that? In news footage they were teary eyed as they begged for their daughter's and her friend's safe return.

But Gabriel was… different. Lila couldn't quite put her intuition into words, but her gut instinct never failed her. His piercing blue eyes were slightly bloodshot as he shouted at the police to not rest until his son was safe and back where he belonged. The footage was kind of terrifying. Gabriel's voice was loud and harsh, and the officers in the clip looked lowkey scared.

But underneath the concerned to near hysteria that Gabriel clearly conveyed, there was another emotion, less sure of itself but persistent nonetheless. An emotion that intrigued Lila to no end.

Guilt.

**aand that's all I got for you today! I hope you enjoyed this, and if you could leave a review that would make my day. Thanks for reading!**

**Until next time! :P**


	2. Chapter 2: Flashback

**Yo, forgot to mention this earlier, but this takes place after Season 3 Episode 9, Miraculer, because the only heroes that are gonna show up are our main five. There will be no spoilers for episodes after that, but the ones before it are fair game. You have been warned ;)**

Eleven days earlier: Marinette's POV

Chat Noir wasn't okay, and Ladybug knew it.

He'd been acting strange throughout their patrol. He'd barely said a word to her the entire time, which wasn't like him. Normally, her partner took every opportunity available to flirt or joke around with her, but not tonight. She doubted he even realized he was doing it. He didn't seem particularly angry, just… distant. Distracted. His mind was a world away.

They finished their patrol by the Eiffel Tower, as per usual. But before her _chaton _could slink off, Ladybug grabbed his tail. "Hey, wait a sec." She walked him over to the edge and gestured for him to sit beside her. She looked him in the eye. "What's wrong, kitty?"

He tensed up, but recovered quickly, leaning back against his elbow and meeting her stare. "What do you mean?"

She didn't relent. "You've been acting weird today. Don't deny it. Is something bothering you?"

"I'm fine, m'lady," he said, but she gave him a skeptical glance.

"If you're so fine, then why are you acting so weird?"

"I just-" his voice cracked and he curled forward, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. "I don't… I don't know if I should tell you…"

"If it's personal, just leave out the details. But you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

"I just…" he trailed off again and she wrapped her arms around him.

"I think something bad is going to happen soon… like really, really bad," his voice was shaking, as Ladybug froze like a deer in headlights.

"What do you mean?"

"I-I… I found out something. My kwami says I shouldn't worry about it, but I just have a really bad feeling and..."

"I don't know," he finished. Ladybug responded by squeezing him tighter. They sat like that for a few minutes, until he gave her a small smile and lightly poked her cheek. He whispered, "See you tomorrow, bugaboo."

Then he leapt off the tower and was gone.

Marinette couldn't keep Chat out of her mind that night. She tossed and turned in bed for at least half an hour, until she anxiously whispered, "Do you think he's okay, Tikki?"

"I don't know, Marinette."

"What if he's not?"

"There's nothing you can do right now, Marinette. Best you just get some sleep. You have school tomorrow."

Despite her kwami's advice, Marinette lay awake for hours before finally drifting off into a restless sleep.

Naturally, she woke up late and almost didn't have enough time to get ready. She rolled out of bed with a groan. Her envy of morning people was immense. How did they do it?

She got dressed and packed up her bag with what had to be military levels of speed, stumbled down the stairs, kissed her mom goodbye on the cheek, and grabbed a croissant on the way out the door, which she promptly stuffed in her mouth while running to school. Which she then made a mental note to _never_ do again, because that left her out of breath and nearly choking. God, did she hate Mondays.

Chat Noir was probably having a worse day than she was.

That thought shut her up. Her face settled into a worried frown as she walked into Ms. Bustier's. Alya nudged her. "Missed the alarm again, girl?" When Marinette didn't really react Alya gave her a weird look, before continuing, "You know, you're not the only one who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

In front of them, Adrien looked more rumpled than ever. His hair was messy and unbrushed, his shirt was completely wrinkled, and his shoelaces were untied.

Normally, Marinette would be more concerned for him, but her mind was already preoccupied having an anxiety attack on Chat Noir's behalf.

Ms. Bustier started the class off with an announcement. "For this history unit we will be doing a project, where you will make a music video related to the topic of our discussion-"

"Awesome," Nino grinned, but quickly sobered when the teacher gave him a look for interrupting.

"Partners have already been selected randomly"-the class groaned-"and are as follows."

"Nino and Sabrina."

"Juleka and Mylene."

Marinette partially tuned out her teacher as the list when on and on, still worrying about Chat Noir. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong, and wherever her kitty was, he was panicking about something.

Suddenly, Alya nudged her. "Lucky!"

Marinette sat up straight. "What?"

"Girl, have you not been listening? Ms. Bustier just paired you with _Adrien!"_

Oh, not today. She didn't even realize she'd said it out loud until Alya asked, "Why?"

"Oh, um… I-I'm not wearing my lucky socks! That's all," Marinette breathed a sigh of relief as Alya chuckled. She was glad she hadn't revealed her true thoughts.

Because ever since last night, Chat Noir's anxious words had replayed in her head, over and over. _I think something bad is going to happen soon..._

It was strange that she was so hung up on this, because it wasn't like anything crazy had happened. They had talked. Chat was acting weird. He seemed really anxious about something, but she had no idea what. And even less idea why _she _was so worked up about it.

Maybe it was because her instincts were one step ahead of her.

_Something bad is going to happen soon._

She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. There was no use worrying about it. She'd see her chaton on patrol tonight, everything would be fine.

Before she knew it, Alya was nudging her. "C'mon Marinette, class is over." Marinette looked up and was startled to see that half of the class had already packed up and left for lunch. Alya shook her head. "What is with you today, girl?"

Marinette and Alya joined Nino and Adrien at their usual table in the cafeteria. Conversation was subdued, as neither Marinette nor Adrien seemed to want to laugh and joke around. Then the bell rang, and they were off to study hall in the library, where everyone was getting started on their projects. Alya and Nino were pulled off to separate parts of the library by their respective partners, and then there were no more tables, so Marinette ended up sitting on the floor next to Adrien in a secluded corner of the library.

Ok, get on task Marinette. She needed to stop thinking about Chat and focus on her project with Adrien. She didn't want to look weird in front of him. Besides, there was nothing to worry about right?

Or was there?

Well maybe-

"FOCUS, Marinette," she groaned.

"What?" Adrien's head snapped up.

"Nothing," she turned toward Adrien, giving him a forced smile. That's when she realized his eyes were slightly red, like he'd been crying.

Had he looked like that all morning? She'd been too distracted to notice. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"What? Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes look kinda red. Ha-have you been dying-no, n-not dying I meant-I mean-_crying?_!"

Gosh, he probably thought she was so weird.

Or maybe that wasn't what he was thinking about, because he immediately paled and said, "What? No-no, you must be seeing things, it's probably just the lighting here in the corner, playing tricks on your eyes."

"You're lying," the words slipped out of Marinette's mouth before she even thought about it and once she realized what she'd said she startled, nearing falling out of her chair.

She opened her mouth to apologize when he cut her off, deflated. "Yeah, you caught me." He put his head in his hands, elbows on his knees, and his posture looked so similar to Chat's the night before that her brain did a double take.

Was is possible that Chat's dilemma could be connected to Adri-

SHUT UP, STUPID BRAIN.

Marinette hated her brain sometimes. But she did not let that show as she laid a comforting hand on Adrien's shoulder.

"Marinette, can I tell you something crazy?" he whispered.

"Uh… sure."

"I think my dad's assistant is a drug addict."

* * *

**Thanks for reading, and for all of the reviews/comments so far. I appreciate it so much; your words are my fuel when I'm procrastinating on getting this done. I'll see you in the next chapter! :P**


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